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<blockquote data-quote="tomBitonti" data-source="post: 6850916" data-attributes="member: 13107">I dunno; we could get more probes there a *lot* quicker than people, and, anyone who was sent might not be coming back because of contagion risks.Sending in the rover to take a few pictures then back out to relay them doesn't sound any more laborious than waiting 6 months to download data captured during the Pluto flyby.&nbsp; I'd be more worried about the chance that the rover got stuck and could not be given new instructions.&nbsp; But, we have probes doing a lot of automated things already.&nbsp; I image there would be a long sequence of the probe going very slightly into the cave, then back out, over and over while relaying new data.&nbsp; That would be balanced against the expected lifetime of the probe, with some maximal value determined for how many trips to make which balanced the lifetime, the risk, and the distance to travel.I could see countries not fighting new land wars, but very possibly fighting to be first to get new probes to the discovery.&nbsp; My questions are whether countries would cooperate or compete to be the first to get there.&nbsp; If they didn't cooperate, how much sabotage there would be.&nbsp; And either way, how quickly could a new probe be gotten to the discovery.&nbsp; Building probes and launch vehicles is today a years long process, with lots of uncertainty about the availability of launch vehicles.What is the likelihood of one of the &quot;probes&quot; being a bomb, ala StarGate, as a safeguard?Thx!TomB</blockquote>

[QUOTE="tomBitonti, post: 6850916, member: 13107"] I dunno; we could get more probes there a *lot* quicker than people, and, anyone who was sent might not be coming back because of contagion risks. Sending in the rover to take a few pictures then back out to relay them doesn't sound any more laborious than waiting 6 months to download data captured during the Pluto flyby. I'd be more worried about the chance that the rover got stuck and could not be given new instructions. But, we have probes doing a lot of automated things already. I image there would be a long sequence of the probe going very slightly into the cave, then back out, over and over while relaying new data. That would be balanced against the expected lifetime of the probe, with some maximal value determined for how many trips to make which balanced the lifetime, the risk, and the distance to travel. I could see countries not fighting new land wars, but very possibly fighting to be first to get new probes to the discovery. My questions are whether countries would cooperate or compete to be the first to get there. If they didn't cooperate, how much sabotage there would be. And either way, how quickly could a new probe be gotten to the discovery. Building probes and launch vehicles is today a years long process, with lots of uncertainty about the availability of launch vehicles. What is the likelihood of one of the "probes" being a bomb, ala StarGate, as a safeguard? Thx! TomB [/QUOTE]

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